


Moravec's Paradox

by Andropedia



Category: Warcraft - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, F/F, I Don't Even Know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2020-10-20 19:46:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20680919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andropedia/pseuds/Andropedia
Summary: The bridge is larger than she has imagined, even having looked at the schematics beforehand. A lot cleaner and brighter than the vessels she has served on before, even though the lights are currently dimmed. A dozen people and their terminals lining either side of the bridge, probably fifty screens between them, surrounding the large hologram table in its center, currently displaying the image of the whole Proudmoore, in a soft blue glow.Not gonna lie, this is basically going to be whole lot of SciFi "porn" (maybe even literally, I haven't decided yet) because my brain is in a math and science mood a the moment, with a lot of Sylvaina sprinkled in there. (eventually)





	1. Hello World

**Author's Note:**

> Because what my life really needs right now is another WIP. No but seriously, for those wondering about 2Tol: I need to write some witty Kael and a little serious dialogue respectively, and since its so dear to me, dont really feel in the right state of mind to do that. And since I dont have the time at hand to watch five seasons of queer eye for inspiration r/n it has to wait for the sake of QA. Hope yall still like this one. :)

The bridge is larger than she has imagined, even having looked at the schematics beforehand. A lot cleaner and brighter than the vessels she has served on before, even though the lights are currently dimmed. A dozen people and their terminals lining either side of the bridge, probably fifty screens between them, surrounding the large hologram table in its center, currently displaying the image of the whole Proudmoore, in a soft blue glow.

As soon as she steps into the close vicinity of the table, Lor’Themar, the XO, and unbeknownst to most of the other crew, a close friend stands in attention, vacating the chair situated on the slightly raised platform next to the table.

“Captain on Deck.” He announces her presence dutifully and clicks his heels, albeit meeting her with a warm smile, his artificial eye glowing in the dark. The rest of the present crew follows suit, Sylvanas quickly dismissing the formalities she is by no means fond of with an “As you were.”

“Captain Windrunner.” He says friendly, and they grab onto each other’s forearm as a final greeting. “We didn’t expect you to arrive so soon. Flight plan says your shuttle arrives sixteen hundred. Did you meet Jaina yet?”

“No, I only read over the dossier on the flight.” Sylvanas informs him nonchalantly, takes a short look around. “I assume she has been briefed on my arrival?”

“Yes Captain.” The faint blue glow of a woman in an old fashioned navy uniform – shirt, double-breasted vest, pants tugged into slightly heeled, almost knee high boots – with long, braided hair, that strangely seems like it’s almost as light as the supposed white of the uniform, appears next to them out of thin air, her hands militarily clasped behind her back.

“Jaina, I assume.” Sylvanas doesn’t flinch at the sudden appearance, instead turns towards the projection.

“Yes Captain Windrunner.” The woman replies evenly, eyeing the tall elf at least as interested as she does her. “At your service.”

“What’s the six thousandth digit of Pi?” Sylvanas asks out of the blue, already continues her walk around the bridge.

“Zero.” Jaina replies immediately, noticeably irritated by her inquiry, like second nature bridges the distance between them and falls into step next to her. “How is that of relevancy?” Her tone is almost challenging, a little outraged even. As much as one would project any of these qualities onto a seventh generation tactical AI.

“I was just curious.” the captain shrugs without looking at her, prompting the AI to tilt her head and narrow her eyes at her. “I see. Any more of these… _curiosities_ I might be able to satisfy?”

“Status?” Sylvanas replies, for now ignoring the smug sarcasm some overly eager behavior dev has without a doubt left in there, having come to a halt at the hologram table, now closely looking at the ships projection.

“There is a small fluctuation in environmental parameters on deck five, one of the atmosphere mixers seems to be defective; A maintenance crew has already been dispatched. Otherwise I’m operating within optimal parameters.”

“Armament?” Sylvanas follows up, spins around the projection with a wave of her hand over the table.

“The Proudmoore’s main armament is comprised of four class A mass drivers in forward position, nine class C mass drivers, arranged in three turrets, one fore and two aft, twenty plasma accelerators, and sixteen independent tactical missile launchers, as well as forty Forsaken class strike drones and eighteen multirole transport- and gunships. The point defense system is comprised of hundred and twenty independently operating high velocity, high cadence rail guns. My fire control system uses the most advanced heuristics and artificial intuition systems, as well as a statistical analysis system, operating at seven point five three exaFLOPS.” Jaina iterates, a measure of pride in her voice.

“Crew?” Sylvanas goes on, unfazed by her account.

“The crew is comprised of two thousand and thirty seven Naval personnel. Furthermore there are two hundred and sixty four marines on board. A company consisting of four rifle platoons, a weapons platoon, as well as a reconnaissance attachment and staff.” the AI’s voice becomes a little strained. “Should I bring up the inventory log, Captain?” she raises an eyebrow.

“No. That will do just fine.” The elf says casually, reading something on the screen in front of her, her back still to the AI, the whole exchange bringing a cheerful smile to the older man’s face.

“How is the loading and rearming operation coming along?” her voice dips back into her usual seriousness after a moment, and she turns towards Jaina and Lor’Themar again.

“Finished, Captain. The cargo docking tunnels are about to be retracted.” The AI turns her eyes up and to her left for a moment, as if to double check her answer.

“Very well. I will be formally addressing the crew on seventeen hundred. I have some other business to attend to in the meantime. Commander Theron, you have the bridge.” Sylvanas says, steps through the holographic projection in front of her on her way out, prompting the AI to purse her lips and practically hostilely narrow her eyes at the back of the elf woman’s head, as her body stabilizes again.

“Do you want me to show you around the ship?” she nonetheless inquires, almost looking irritated by the Captain’s behavior.

“No, I will find the way.” she waves her off; After all she has spend hours and hours internalizing every small detail, every maintenance shaft of the ship. She doesn’t see the way the AI finally folds her virtual arms in front of her body, an eyebrow still raised at the officer.

These brand new ships always astonish her; Even though their design is very clean – practical – to begin with, the way the corridors are cut, the position of the lighting and fact that most of its entrails are well hidden besides panels and lattice almost lets her forget its grim purpose; Unlike some of the ships she has served on before, that sometimes can date back to what is now largely hailed the second age of discovery.

Sylvanas spends a few minutes on the top floor of the central hub; An architectural concession to the livability of the crew quarters, something at least the elvish ship designers put a lot of thought into. A large atrium in the center of the ship, bright and open, but, difficult to imagine, surrounded by even thicker panels of armor. It still, after all these years, gives her a sense of wonder. Looking down into bustling activity preceding the launch, her presence is barely noticed by anyone, regardless of the golden insignia on her collar, as members of the crew stream in and out the different sections of the quarters. Some returning from their shifts others on their way to their stations ahead of launch.

“Some things never change.” Sylvanas says vaguely amused, looking at the pile of electronics, tools and complimentary food on the desk in the middle of the lab, before the door has even fully closed behind her again.

“I… what. _Ouch_.” comes a reply and a short moment later a bunch of silver hair bound in a messy ponytail appears from under the desk, the elf attached to it scratching her head.

“Sylvanas!” she greets the other woman brightly, straightens out and mock dusts off her dark blue uniform.

“Lieutenant Windrunner. It’s good to see you, Little Moon.” Sylvanas reply uncharacteristically warmly. “The lab seems a little small; I can arrange for another one, if you want. One with a view.” she comments.

“I don’t think that’ be wise. Some of the crew already think you just got the command because of Mother. And I like this room; It has charm.” She adds, and after hesitating for a few seconds throws her arms around the taller woman’s body. “It’s great to see you Vannas.”

The captain endures the hug a little awkwardly, before softly wiggling herself out of it, creating some space between them by straightening her little sister out with her hands gently on her shoulders.

“I don’t care what they think. We both know the three of us had to work our way up the command chain twice as hard as anyone else, _because_ of mother.” she says, offering a wry smile.

“_Hmmm_. Still. Captain Menethil was very popular.” Vereesa argues.

“Right.” Sylvanas replies in a resigning tone, lets go of the shorter elf. Better leave the past in the past.

“Did you meet Jaina already?” Vereesa asks and retrieves a chocolate covered protein bar from her desk, quickly starts to unwrap it. Since her sister is here, she might as well take this opportunity to take a long overdue break.

“Yes. Is it just me, or does she seem a little… _individual_.” Sylvanas says, raises an eyebrow at her sister.

“Yes, isn’t she great?” Vereesa replies cheerily, throws her hands in the air for emphasis. “I even gave her the ability to chose her own small gestures and quirks.”

“Wait. You are working on _her_?” Sylvanas replies incredulous. She really should have know this was her sister’s doing. “You are aware this is the live build of our tactical AI you are messing with?”

“I am not ‘messing’ with her.” the younger Windrunner protests, makes air quotes at her sister. “Her tactical abilities and decision making are not affected. She is unable to overrule her tactical deliberation system.”

“Plus, my mission also is to make improvements to her, not just to make sure she doesn’t go crazy and kills us all.” she points half a chocolate bar at her sister, with a triumphant expression. “Which is highly unlikely, by the way.”

“How unlikely?” Sylvanas follows up, vaguely amused. She has no reason to doubt her sister. She is one of the few people she knows who understand all the intricacies of the AI.

“Even if her personality matrix was to destabilize, which there is no evidence is even possible since generation three by the way, she can’t even remotely make any decisions that would lead to any harm to the crew or the ship without your authorization. So unless you both go crazy...” she smirks at her sister.

“All right, all right.” the taller elf waves her hand at her sister in feign resignation. “Keep me posted about her status, will ya?”

“Yes Ma’am.” Vereesa gives back with a grin, and finishes her snack.

Sylvanas is halfway done turning to leave, when she stops again.

“What’s with the uniform?” she inquires.

“Code specifies the AI has to appear wearing an official Navy uniform. Doesn’t specify which one. _She_ actually pointed that out to me. So I let her chose one.” Vereesa informs her nonchalantly. “As I said. Improvements.”

Sylvanas eyes her quite intensely for a moment, apparently unsure whether to comment on that, but then simply shrugs, and turns to leave again. “I’ll be on my way again. Still have to swing by engineering before we leave.” she informs Vereesa, after a short pause.

“Tell Commander Clickspring I still need that replacement for my holographic projector.” the shorter Windrunner says, saunters forwards a little to hug her sister again. “You can hug me back, you know? No one is watching.” she adds as the taller woman’s arms hover behind her openly.

“Right.” Sylvanas ever awkwardly pads her back. “I’ll be in touch.”

“See you around, Captain.”


	2. Ten Minutes Twenty Nine Seconds

Their mission leads them to one of the outer sectors of galaxy, just between the old orc empire and human space. Apparently there have been attacks on independent colonies and mining stations, human and orc alike. The travel itself is save. – Through elf and human space, not even remotely close to any dangerous, or even noteworthy celestial bodies, besides Theramore, that is, which they pass in a distance.

“I knew I would find you here.” Vereesa's always cheery voice greets the captain, as she places her elbows on the railing overlooking the large hangar deck the marines use as a base of operation, mimicking her sister’s pose, leaning forward, and absentmindedly watching the marines bustling about beneath them.

“Or Jaina simply told you were I was.” Sylvanas replies evenly, doesn’t take her eyes off the deck underneath. The officer leading their complement of ground troops, a fiery redhead elf, is sparing with a shorter blonde in their exoskeletons, while a small crowd of personal is cheering them on, the sharp sounds of metal colliding with metal echoing through the large space, as neither of the women, who regard each other with fierce determination seems willing to give in.

“Shouldn’t you make them stop or something?” the silver haired elf narrows her eyes, now becoming aware of the happenings.

“As long as they are only going at each other in close combat I don’t see a reason to. The deck is designed to withstand an emergency landing of a ship of up two hundred tons of mass. I’m pretty sure it can take a five hundred kilo mech. And she is the commanding officer. I’m not going to undermine her authority. She wouldn’t be, if she didn’t know what she is doing.” the captain adds. Vereesa looks like she wants to protest, but is interrupted by the taller elf’s communicator lighting up on her wrist.

“Jaina to Captain Windrunner.” the AI’s neutral voice calls.

“Yes.” Sylvanas replies curtly, finally turns away from the spectacle, just as the redhead pins the blonde’s mech under hers.

“We have encountered an unknown vessel. Your presence on the bridge is advised.” Jaina informs them.

“Is it now.” Sylvanas responds somewhat sarcastically at Jaina’s choice of words.

“Yes Captain, It’s….” the AI begins again.

“I’m on my way.” the elf cuts her off with a little eye roll.

“I’ll leave you to it!” her sister smiles and waves, as the older Windrunner steps into the nearest elevator.

“What do we know?” Sylvanas inquires immediately, as she enters the bridge.

“According to our scans it’s a large mining vessel, the hulls composition and form suggest it’s of orc design. No insignia though, and they haven’t returned any of our attempts to hail them.” Jaina iterates, her hologram slightly turning towards the captain.

“Any activity on the sensors?” Sylvanas enlarges the alien vessel’s image on the tactical hologram.

“Their is a continuous increase of their power grid’s load.”

“Are they readying their weapons?”

“I doubt they even have weapons.” Jaina replies, what can only be describes as snarky. Suddenly the bridge is immersed in the dim red light of the various alerts going off at once, and Jaina and the captain turn their attention to the screen in front of the bridge.

“Status.” Sylvanas demands seriously.

“There are currently three hundred and sixty four small objects heading towards Proudmoore with at least Mach four.” Jaina informs her. “Size and material composition suggest it’s mining charges.”

“Intercept.” the elf instructs more calmly, slowly shifts from one leg to the other, not taking her eyes of the screen.

The AI paused, turning her eyes up and to the left for the briefest moment. “Calculating firing solution. Executing.” The blink of an eye later the screen lights up with the thousands and thousands of bullets streaming from the point defense batteries of the ship, followed only seconds later by the bright flashes of the incoming missile’s detonations illuminating the darkness of space between the ships. – None of them remotely close to reaching them.

“Report.” Sylvanas inquires evenly once the lights start to fade and eventually die down.

“All three hundred and sixty four projectiles have been destroyed. Batteries six, thirty nine and fifty six are cooling down. The unknown vessel has ceased their attack.” Jaina iterates neutrally. “Shall I return fire?”

“Did the attack pose a threat to our defenses?” the captain turns towards the holographic projection next to her.

“My scans show that the vessel used all their firing capabilities with the last attack. Given the speed of the projectiles, the preliminary readings of their construction and composition, and the distance between us, assuming unlimited ammunition capacity and the same attack pattern, they could keep up a continuous attack of nine hundred and seventy three missiles at a time. In that case my defensive capabilities would be exhausted in ten minutes twenty nine seconds, at a final efficiency of sixty six percent, with battery three being the last one to run out of ammunition.”

“I take that as a _no_.” Sylvanas comments audibly amused.

“No.” Jaina parrots. If she didn’t know it was predefined social behavior to make interactions more comfortable, Sylvanas would almost say the AI is annoyed with her reply.

“Ready mass drivers and plasma accelerators. Hold your fire.” the elf instructs. “Any luck hailing them now?” she turns towards the communications officer.

“No answer on all channels. Alliance, Horde, Otherwise.” Lor’Themar instead replies, spinning towards her in his chair.

“_Hmmm_. Fire a warning shot. Low energy plasma charge, right in front of the bridge.” Sylvanas commands, turning towards the redhead manning the tactical station.

“Captain. They haven opened fire again.” The AI interrupts accompanied by a warning sound.

_So much for that. _“Suppress and return fire. Only a gently love tap please; I really want to know why a mining vessel in the middle of nowhere decided to barrage us with asteroid charges.” the elf waves her hand dismissively.

“A…_ love tap_? It seems that phrase is missing from my vocabulary.” Jaina quirks an eyebrow at her captain.

“Incapacitate them with the least amount of risk to their crew.” Sylvanas clarifies, a small smirk on her face, that doesn’t go unnoticed by the AI, since she very subtle is side eyeing her; Which, for the record, Sylvanas is sure she is not supposed to do.

“If we hit their shields with a full power energy charge, their energy grid is likely going to collapse.” the tactical officer supplies.

“I agree.” Jaina replies and her projection takes a step closer to the screen, her eyes sharply focusing on the image of the ship. A moment later a considerably small ball of blue glowing particles speeds towards the other ship, hitting it only seconds later with noticeable precision, indeed doing minimal damage. Their attack has the desired effect though, as the vessel suddenly seems adrift and lifeless in front of them.

“Any sensor readings?” the captain inquires.

“I now detect twenty five life signs onboard. Orcs and Trolls.” Jaina replies.

“See if they are more willing to talk to us now.” Sylvanas says, nodding towards the communications officer.

“_You will never take us alive, creature!_” a distorted voice eventually answers their calls. It’s deep and aggressive and vibrates with a sense of doom.

“This is Captain Windrunner, of the Alliance battleship Proudmoore. Unknown vessel, identify yourself.”

“_I’m Captain Halffang of the mining barge Warsong, and I see through your lies, wretched abomination. If you want us come and get us._” the voice replies again, his insistence prompting Sylvanas to inhale loudly.

“Captain Halffang, I can assure you we are who I told you. We only answered your aggression. If this is some kind of misunderstanding, we would be glad to clear it up. According to our readings the damage your vessel sustained is only minimal. We can have you up and running again in no time, provided you can explain your attack on our ship.” she replies surprisingly calmly.

“Scan for other ships in the immediate surrounding systems. If he thinks we are someone else, I want to know what got him so riled up in the first place. Orcs don’t usually head that blindly into battle with a clearly superior opponent. Especially not in times of peace. Captain Halffang must have been really desperate, if he thought attacking without a warning was his best bet.” Sylvanas turns to Jaina. “Also, ready a boarding crew, just in case he doesn’t see reason. Only non lethal force.”

“There have been reports of attacks on different orc and human installments in this sector, we only came here to investigate. Who ever you think we are, I can assure you we are not.” she states into the orc captain’s silence again.

“_If you are Alliance, prove it._” the orc’s voice can be heard after a while of radio silence.

“What kind of prove I can provide, I will.” Sylvanas replies seriously, although she isn’t really sure what more prove there is than the mere fact the orc’s vessel is still in one piece.

“_I want to see your face._” Halffang says. “_Bring your ship around and look me into the eye._”

“Alright Captain.” Sylvanas nods towards Jaina. “We are approaching now. Fair warning, we will still defend ourselves if the necessity should arise.” About ninety seconds later the two ships bridges are aligned in only a fraction of a kilometer distance, and they lower the armoring in front of the ship’s bridge, so Sylvanas and Captain Halffang are in relatively close proximity and line of sight of each other.

“_Mok’ra, Alliance._” through the magnification lenses of the optical sensors Sylvanas can see the orc bring his fist to his chest and bow his head towards her. _“I apologize for attacking you unprovoked. We thought you to be one of them._”

“Mok’ra, Captain Halffang.” Sylvanas mirrors his gesture. “You and your crew are welcome to join us on board the Proudmoore until the repairs on your ship are finished.”

“Are you sure that’s wise Captain?” Jaina inquires seriously, steps closer to the tall elf for emphasis.

“Do you have a better idea?” the captain challenges.

“I suggest we detain them until we can determine what to do with them.” the AI replies, audibly outraged by the notion of simply letting the orcs and trolls on board.

“And risk an interstellar incident.” Sylvanas replies flatly.

“They attacked m… _us_.” Jaina gives back.

“Your protest has been noted.” the elf nods solemnly, although the image of the blue woman doesn’t look the slightest bit satisfied with her answer. “Now let them on board.”

“They always come from the dark side. And they attack without warning.” the old orc informs the elves over dinner. “We thought back, but their weapons are like nothing we have seen before. Our old ships are no match of them.”

“Do you have any sensor readings of the alien attackers?” Jaina interjects appearing at their side, prompting the orc to narrow his eyes at her hostilely, but ignoring her question. “Tell this… affront to nature, we will be sending you all the logs we can find. But don’t expect it to be much.”

“Excuse me…” if she would be actually breathing the AI would probably be gasping for air.

“Will you please leave us alone for a moment Jaina.” Sylvanas cuts her off calmly, shoots her an intense look, conveying she wasn’t really asking.

“Yes Captain.” the AI grits her teeth. A moment later he image is gone from the table.

“How long have you been fighting them?” the elf follows up seriously.

“Close to a year now. At first we didn’t believe the reports ourselves because there were hardly any survivors.” captain Halffang replies.

“We only recently received our first reports.” Sylvanas raises an eyebrow at him.

“The empire is… slow to admit there is a problem. Especially a military one.” the orc replies. “They only just now started to venture into your space.”

“That’s troubling then.” the elf replies seriously. “If you agree we will instead grant you save passage home, and come back for your ship later.”

“That’s a very generous offer Captain, but we would never abandon our ship so easily.”

“Very well. At least agree to letting us escort you home then.” Sylvanas follows up.

“To that I can agree.” Halffang replies solemnly. “You are very honorable, Captain Windrunner.”

“As are you, Captain.”


	3. I Remember Everyone

“Hey, Lieutenant, can I speak to you for a moment?” Sylvanas’ quiet voice inquires, breaking the her younger sister’s focus on her task.

“Oh. Hey, Sylvanas! Come in.” Vereesa replies, practically jumping off her seat, with a wide smile on her face. “That was quiet exciting, wasn’t it?” she adds once the door has closed behind the captain. The taller elf’s eye twitches, just barely visibly at the fact the other woman didn’t bother with the proper title,_ at all_.

“It’s not supposed to be _exciting_.” Sylvanas immediately replies, gives the other woman a scolding look, she has perfected over their teenage years. “We got lucky. If this was a real enemy people might get hurt.”

“I know….” Vereesa says meekly, but then chipper as ever saunters towards her sister, being stopped short of throwing her arms around her by another stern look.

“How can I help you?” she eventually inquires, shrugs at her sister’s usual discomfort over her affection, and throws herself in the armchair at her desk again, habitually grabbing a strain of her silver hair that inadvertently has fallen into her face, and pretending it’s a mustache, before recognizing her sister’s sharp eyes on her.

“It’s about Jaina, again.” Sylvanas says slightly exasperated, takes a step closer, crossing her hands behind her back.

“What about her?” Vereesa narrows her eyes at her, already punching something into the terminal in front of her.

“She has been… a little headstrong for the usual AI standards. She was almost upset I refused to throw our guests into the brig because they attacked _her_, right away.” the taller woman iterates. Her sister follows her explanation, nodding along vaguely skeptically.

“Let me take a look.” she concedes though, and a few lines of commands later the image of the aforementioned AI appears in front of her desk.

“I thought she can’t get in here?” Sylvanas inquires, slightly tilting her head, to eye the artificial woman’s face.

“She can’t if I don’t invite her. This is just the debug interface, it doesn’t generate memories and is isolated from the ships subsystems as much as physically possible. I mean it’s still her, but you know...” the Lieutenant informs her.

“Jaina.” Vereesa says, and the until now completely still image comes to life, a cheerful smile appearing on her face as soon as she recognizes Vereesa.

“Hello, Vereesa.” she greets the shorter elf warmly, apparently isn’t even aware of the captain’s presence for some reason. – Probably a symptom of debug mode.

“Interface only.” Vereesa instructs, and the smile immediately vanishes from the AI’s face, as her eyes turn straight forward, seemingly staring into the distance now.

“When was that?” the programmer asks.

“Yesterday around eighteen hundred in captain's mess.” Sylvanas replies, suddenly feeling a lot more uncomfortable in the AI’s presence. She supposes it’s true that the personality systems do help.

“Jaina, bring up personal interactions with captain. Yesterday, around eighteen hundred.” Vereesa demands calmly, and a moment later a sort of flow chart and a complete log of each spoken word appears on the holo screen between them.

“_Hmm_. Strange.” Vereesa states cryptically after inspecting the images and texts for a while, then writes some more commands into her console.

“Her motivation was to ensure the safety of the ship. That seems correct. But the underlying heuristic she is supposed to base her evaluation on disagrees with her. That doesn’t make any sense. If she was a human I’d say she is being irrational.” she says, more to herself than anything, absentmindedly starts wrapping the tip of her eyebrow around her index finger.

“Her deviations from protocol are up five percent, but that’s normal given I encouraged her to improvise more.” she goes on another few commands and their results later. “Let me check...”

“Jaina, analyze your personality matrix for me. Check for level one and two failure, and paradoxes.” Vereesa instructs, prompting Jaina’s image to close her eyes, although they visibly start to move around under their lids.

“My personality matrix is stable; No resentments towards biological organisms detected; No covert sense of superiority detected. No self destructive impulses detected. Mathematical paradox resolved. Self-referential paradox resolved. Vagueness paradox resolved. Arbitrary decision paradox resolved. All systems nominal.”

“_Hmmm_.” Vereesa hums, flips a few pages on the holo screen, then hums again, this time it’s almost distraught.

“You don’t like orcs.” She states, and this time the captain’s head immediately snaps up from where she has begun burring it on her hands. “Why is that?”

“It’s logical.” Jaina replies simply, doesn’t say anything else.

“Show chain of deduction.” Vereesa leans forwards now, noticeably tense, a second later another flow chart appears on the screen.

“Analyze conclusiveness of node seven dash A five dash eight of information basis. Where is that weight coming from?” a long moment – too long – goes by in silence.

“I don’t know.” Jaina replies finally.

“It’s a personal experience node. And it adjusts the weight of every positive parameter assigned to orcs with a negative seven. And it’s encrypted somehow. I can’t get to the underlying memory. How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know.” Jaina replies dutifully again.

“Isolate node seven dash A five dash eight from your information basis and save a copy to the terminal please.” Vereesa instructs the AI, becomes noticeably more calm again.

“Confirmed.” the AI says a blink of an eye later.

“Rerun that conversation for me please.” the elf goes on and another set of flow chart bubbles begin to develop on the screen.

“Okay. That’s better. _Strange_.”

“What is _strange_?” Sylvanas, who has been sitting quietly watching her sister work until now, asks sharply, audibly worried albeit completely calm.

“It’s probably a bug. Somehow she must have misinterpreted the mining vessel’s attack. My best guess is there was a loop over some behavioral routines that wasn’t supposed to happen, that stacked her evaluation of the orcs. I’m going to monitor that and take a look at that node later. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Her reasoning was sound, save for the fact that she somehow overestimated the danger the orcs pose to the ship.”

“A loop, I thought these systems were more evolved than simple flow charts and _loops_.”

“They are.” Vereesa pointedly rolls her eyes. “But at one point some processes don’t have to be smart or very flexible. Most of the subsystems for facial expression, voice and such are quite linear, so to speak. So if she developed a quirk, it’s saved as like a behavioral macro that she can use with a limited set of variation based on her _mood_. Much like when you do this thing with your eyebrow before rolling your eyes. ‘System isn’t perfectly mature yet, but I’m positive it won’t have any adverse effects on her performance. Save for some… _headstrongness_.”

“What if she randomly starts defending herself?” Sylvanas argues seriously, uncharacteristically accompanied by air quotes, visibly not convinced by the other elf’s elaboration, prompting her sister to blink slowly for a moment.

“Short answer, she can’t. Long answer, as far as I can see the anomaly seems to be limited to her personality. And even if it wasn’t if the heuristic and the statistical analysis disagree she can’t take offensive measures without your expressed permission. So she won’t be going in guns blazing at the next orc freighter we meet, even if her tactical assessment was affected, which, I have to stress, it is not.” she pauses for a second. “Plus, I removed the node from her knowledge base.”

“I am going to go with your judgment on this. But keep me posted about any findings you might make.” the captain concedes with a sigh, forgoing arguing with her little sister for once.

“Yes, Captain.” Vereesa says, _almost_ seriously, giving her sister her cheeky smile, before forcing her face into a serious expression when Sylvanas rolls her eyes at her again, clearing her throat and mock dusting off her uniform.

“Carry on.” Sylvanas replies neutrally, unconsciously takes a step back to avoid the hugs that’s inadvertently coming, but fails miserably, when the shorter elf woman hops forward, throwing her arms around her older sister, prompting her to sigh loudly.

“Sorry, Sylva… _Captain_.” she says, not the least bit sorry and comically seriously clicks her heels, prompting her exhale loudly through her nose. A moment later she turns around and leaves, accompanied by a soft smile on her sister’s face.

“Jaina.” Sylvanas says calmly, sets the tablet in her hand down on the small table next to the couch built into the window of her quarters and swings her legs of it’s surface.

“Yes Captain.” comes the AI’s reply, her artificial voice still filled with these strange hints of cheeriness and being annoyed by the inquiry itself.

“Manifest, please.” Sylvanas instructs, pursing her lips for the shortest moment. She isn’t sure why she is even doing this. She is a machine. And she knows she can trust her sister to not endanger the whole ship. Even if she tents to be a little headstrong and opinionated about these things at times. Still, the whole thing bugs her minds. After only a second the soft glow of Jaina’s image appears in the middle of the room. She is already facing the captain, her hands crossed in front of her body, still ‘wearing’ that rather old fashioned uniform.

“What can I do for you, Captain?” she inquires calmly, patiently waiting for the elf’s reply, as Sylvanas spends a moment just watching her standing there.

“Give me the tactical analysis of our encounter with the orc vessel the other day, please.” she instructs, sitting a little tense, her hands folded, resting across her legs.

“Yes, Captain. The ship ultimately did not pose a thread to us. Objective analysis shows that our course of action considering the information we he had at the time and the eventual outcome, would have led to a favorable outcome in ninety nine point nine seven percent of scenarios. Taking more severe offensive measures could have led to the ships destruction, loss of it’s crew and potentially a diplomatic crisis with the Empire.”

“What about the crew?” Sylvanas raises an eyebrow at her.

“The crew of the ship is mainly comprised of professional miners and ex-soldiers. A very common profession in the Empire. There is no intel about a potential threat or hostile attitude towards the Alliance or our ship in general. Their attack put them at a severe tactical disadvantage. It most likely was a misunderstanding, as the Captain said.” Jaina explains, doesn’t show any sign she disagrees with the words coming out her mouth.

“Thank you. That would be all.” Sylvanas says calmly, friendly even. She doesn’t know what she expected. Vereesa was probably right there being a simple bug resulting from the changes she made. Maybe she _should_ put a little more trust in her, sometimes.

“Captain?”

“Yes?”

“What was the purpose of your inquiry?”

“I was just wondering.” Sylvanas shrugs, trying to hide the fact she was worried to begin with. Plus, the AI is not supposed to know about their little venture into her personality core to begin with.

“I find that answer unsatisfactory. Is there a reason I should worry about the crew’s and my safety?” Jaina tilts her head. The practically reproachful tone of her voice and the phrasing of her inquiry bringing an irritated expression to the captain’s face.

“No there is not.” the tall elf woman replies sternly, gets up from her seat for emphasis and takes step close to the AI. “You would be the first to know, if there was.” Sylvanas implores, although she isn’t sure why she even feels the need to justify herself to the AI.

“Thank you for your trust, Captain.” she apparently accepts her answer, a strange content expression settling on her face, like the fact actually means something to her.

“Jaina?” Sylvanas suddenly keeps the AI from taking her leave.

“Yes, Captain?”

“What’s your earliest memory?” she asks, vaguely warmly. It’s not really a follow up on her earlier inquiry. She supposes she is just projecting.

“I have access to logs from the earliest states of the my core’s development. I suppose my first seeing someone with my own eyes, so to speak, and fully manifest was on Silvermoon station, when an engineer first gave me full control over a complete interfacing system.”

“Do you remember them well?”

“I remember everyone I met ‘well’.” Jaina, to the elf’s surprise, gives a nonanswer.

“Who were they?” Sylvanas follows up unfazed by Jaina’s sudden defensive demeanor.

“Lieutenant Lucille Waycrest, AI technician with the second engineering group booted me into a test environment.” the volume of the AI’s voice drops just enough to make the Captain wonder.

“Did you spend a lot of time there?”

“Define_ a lot_.” the AI answers. At first Sylvanas thinks of it as defensive, but then again Jaina seemingly has a habit of being oddly specific about things.

“How much time passed until you became the Proudmoore’s avatar?” the elf rather rephrases her question.

“During the time the Proudmoore’s basic skeleton and hull had been already finished, but launch was still about a year out. I have been transferred to it’s AI core about a month a head of it’s launch.” she recounts.

“So, a lot then.” Sylvanas establishes with a small, amused smile.

“I suppose so.” Jaina agrees, giving the captain a questioning look, unsure where she is going with this.

“Did you know the Lieutenant well?” it’s a harmless question, but is met with silence, and a strange, almost sad expression on the AI’s face, that again brings this unpleasant, dreadful feeling to the captain’s mind. But before she can restate her inquiry, the AI’s silence is broken by the loud beeping noise of the captain’s person terminal.

“Captain, a message from admiralty.” Jaina announces immediately, her face returning to its usual, neutral, friendly expression. Sylvanas for a moment considers following up on the matter regardless, but it’s probably nothing anyways, so she let it go in favor of answering the call.


	4. Full Autonomy

“What was that?” Sylvanas inquires, steadying her footing, looking around and up, since the explosion and crashing sound clearly came from above them, even though given the size of the ship that’s still pretty vague. The battle has been raging for hardly two minutes and it’s increasingly clear even with all the advanced Thalassian technology the Proudmoore is already fighting an uphill battle.

“’A’ turret has been incapacitated.” Jaina informs her, her concentration still clearly focused on fending off the unidentified vessel’s attacks.

“Casualties?” the captain follows up, worry settling on her face.

“Unknown. Internal sensors on deck ‘0-A’ are offline. Optical sensors on the hull confirm that parts of the turret have been completely destroyed. Dispatching medical and rescue teams.”

A moment goes by with all of them intensely watching the holo display, incoming and outgoing fire, damage reports and the station behind them.

“My defenses can’t protect both the Proudmoore and the station, Captain. Total failure of defensive perimeter in ninety seven seconds.”

Another explosion shakes the bridge.

“The enemy has begun targeting my defenses directly. Battery eleven has been destroyed.” Jaina says neutrally, although there is something like worry under that intense concentration on her face.

“Options?” Sylvanas addresses the room, although her question was clearly particularly meant for the AI.

“Jump Drive is still operational.” Jaina says heavily. “By my calculations the odds are increasingly not in our favor. Retreat would be a logical strategy.”

“Unacceptable, we can’t leave these people to die.” Sylvanas replies harshly, unwilling to accept making a run for it as their only remaining option.

Another explosion’s shock wave runs through the ship, again shaking up the bridge.

“Battery thirty eight has been destroyed.” comes the affirmation of another of their defenses’ demise.

Suddenly the AI seemingly pauses, only for a second, a very long time for an AI, hesitates. “Requesting Full Autonomy.” she says curtly. Lor’Themar and Sylvanas eye each other for the briefest moment, before the captain replies. “For what?”

“No time to explain.” the AI answers promptly. “You _have_ to trust me.”

Another short moment goes by with the two senior offices apparently having a whole silent conversation in the span of seconds, before the captain turns towards the small keypad next to her, and starts entering the code that would release their artificial guide from her restraints.

“Full Autonomy granted.” She informs Jaina, and immediately all the colors of the holograms, including Jaina herself, change from the soft blue hue to a deep purple, as the AI strangely has her eyes closed.

“All personal, secure your stations.” Jaina’s voice starts to repeat over and over again all around the ship.

“Clickspring to bridge.” the gnome engineer’s understandably agitated voice suddenly sound through the intercom. “We are in the middle of battle, why is my jump drive being recalibrated? These numbers don’t make any sense.”

“One moment Commander. Jaina?” Sylvanas inquires, but doesn’t receive an answer, the only thing she gets is the AI holding up a single finger, as to shush her, although her lips also move, almost too quietly to understand. “It’s _my_ jump drive.”

“Captain, she is destabilizing the guiding fields of the plasma accelerators.” one of the crewmen informs them from his station, as another explosion can be heard _and_ felt throughout the ship.

“Captain, the point defenses, they seem to concentrate their fire to protect themselves.” Another impact on the armor. And another. “And all our drones have been launched.”

“Jaina, what are you doing?” Sylvanas inquires again, her tone pleading, almost angry over the seemingly random behavior of their defenses.

“The drones are beginning to act as point defenses for the orc station! Efficiency up to almost ninety seven percent.” On the screen they can watch all forty of the drones arranging in a tight grid on front of the mining station, their guns opening fire, as would the point defenses of the Proudmoore.

“Done.” the AI proclaims. They barely manage to turn towards her to question the statement, but before either of them can something else, they can feel the powerful sensation of the jump drive going off. Sylvanas wants to ask why she is running. What all this was about, when all she was doing is abandoning the station in the first place. But then her eyes fall onto the holographic image in front of them. They didn’t run; The Proudmoore performed a jump, _but sideways__,_ and reappeared at exactly the alien ship’s location. The lights flicker erratically for a moment then for just a second the only thing still illuminating the bridge is the AI’s image, as all other sources of light, terminals go dark. One last explosion can be felt, although it’s vague, distant. And when the lights come back on, the enemy is gone from the hologram, replaced by what looks like thousands and thousands of chunks of debris.

“What just happened? Status.” Sylvanas asks loudly, as the AI turns back to her natural, soft blue glow. Jaina strangely seems to take a moment to catch her breath.

“She… made us reenter normal space inside the enemy vessel’s position.” The science officer informs them in audible disbelief.

“Inside? How is that even possible?” Sylvanas replies, but fully turns towards the AI instead.

“She focused all our energy into the plasma accelerators, and without the fields to hold them, they just spewed the net output of our reactor core at the enemy vessel. We essentially evaporated the matter before it could crush us when space normalized around the Proudmoore. They all burned out as the jump drive distorted the space around us on reentry.”

“The enemy?” the captain inquires practically unnecessarily, although disbelieve over what just happened heavily colors her voice.

“The ship has been completely destroyed. As far as I can tell there is nothing left.”

“The station?”

“Battered but alive.”

“Captain, damage reports are coming.” one of the bridge crew’s voice interrupts. “A turret has been destroyed beyond any field repair. Two casualty and seven injured. Seventy five injured around other parts of the ship. And Captain Vandellor wants to know when we are going to board the enemy vessel.” he adds with an irritated expression on his face.

“Keep me posted on the treatment of the injured. Have science probes collect as much data and matter from the enemy as possible. And tell Captain Vandellor to get ready to assist the orcs in evacuating the station. We are going to have no choice but to take them with us, back to Theramore.”

Only now the Captain takes a brief moment, a steadying breath followed by a loud sigh, but then turns towards the AI again. “Coordinate search and rescue, and the evacuation of the station. I want a detailed report later.” she adds a little grimly, and without another word leaves the bridge, even before the AI can affirm her command.

The moment she enters her quarters the Captain fetches the tablet from the small desk and immediately isolates the room from the com systems and therefor Jaina, and drops into the chair in front of her terminal, quickly putting in a few security codes.

“Hello, Captain Windrunner.” the deep voice of another AI greets her. “How my I be of service?”

“Khadgar, I’m sending you a log, please do a strategic evaluation.” Sylvanas instructs without any further formalities.

“Very well Captain… Data received. Analyzing.” the AI presenting as a scruffy looking middle aged man informs her calmly.

“A bold strategy…” the AI comments after a few seconds.

“So it would seem.” Sylvanas replies audibly sarcastically. “What were the odds?”

“It’s an unorthodox strategy.” Khadgar reiterates, pauses for another second. “But my analysis shows that it would have been successful in ninety eight point seven percent of scenarios in which no unknown variables were introduced retroactively.”

“Elaboration.” Sylvanas demands, but noticeably calmer than before.

“The inherent inertia of space distortion and curvature generated by a Mark nineteen jump drive leave a window of six point six two six one milliseconds in which the matter of the ship inside the singularity does not interact with matter outside it’s theoretical event horizon, even if they intersect. There can however be a flow of charged particles and energy between the two. As stated by Medivh’s second theorem.” the AI explains.

“Has there ever be a practical application of the theorem?” Sylvanas follows up. The AI opens his mouth but is cut off by the captain again. “Save for the data I just send you.” she specifies, and the AI closes his mouth again.

“No. Not until now.” He establishes.

“Thank you. That’d be all.” Sylvanas sighs.

“Very well, Captain. Should I inform Admiral Windrunner of your status?”

“No.” Sylvanas and turns off the terminal before the AI can say anything else. She _is_ relieved by the analysis, had she seriously considered it a mistake to hand over control to the AI so easily, but still can’t help but feel uneasy about what happened.

Save for the repairs, and constant state of alarm during their approach of Theramore, Sylvanas spends most of her time reading up on theoretical physics, jump drive theory and the specifications of gen seven tactical AIs. Something about Jaina still irks her. She doesn’t even know why. Khadgar is a science AI, if Jaina’s assessment would have been wrong, he would have known. She might behave oddly, but she didn’t do anything wrong so far, save for not trusting the orcs all too much, which brought her more on par with Sylvanas’ mother than anything. Plus the maneuver pretty much saved then. And she suggested running first.

After a few minutes of blankly looking at the ceiling above the bed, the tall elf woman quickly sat up steadying herself against the edge of her bed, before retrieving the tablet from the ground.

“Captain to Lieutenant Windrunner.” she said, calmly watching the call icon on the screen pulse, before her sister’s sleepy face appeared on the screen.

“Yes?” Vereesa yawned and stretched, noticeably not be in her room, but rather on the couch in her lab.

“Sorry to wake you, Little Moon.” the captain said warmly, at the all too familiar sight of her sister’s sleepy expression.

“No problem, I must have fallen asleep in the lab.” Vereesa replied, shaking her head a little and stretching.

“Do you mind if I come over?” Sylvanas inquired very casually, mindful to not assert any of her authority.

“_Hmmm_. I’m on late shift tomorrow. This wouldn’t happen to be about our AI, would it?” the silver haired elf said cheekily.

“Yes.” Sylvanas replied meekly, immediately feeling bad for playing the sister card, even though she knows Vereesa doesn’t mind at all.

“Are you bringing alcohol?” the younger Windrunner grinned at the camera.

“Sure.” Sylvanas replied, audibly relieved by her answer. “Your room in ten?”

“Yeah. I’ll take a shower first. Let yourself in if I’m not ready. You know the door code.” her sister replied before getting off the couch and quickly leaving the room, leaving Sylvanas to close the connection.

“So. What’s up _Captain_?” her sister’s bright eyes greet the tall elf woman as she leisurely enters the room from the bathroom, only a large towel wrapped around her body and hair.

“I can’t stop thinking about full autonomy mode.” Sylvanas concedes and starts pouring the dark purple liquids into the glasses she has brought, once her sister slouches down on the couch next to her, drops of water easily finding her way onto the older sister’s uniform.

“What about it?” Vereesa asks adjusting herself more comfortably against her sister’s side.

“She didn’t need full autonomy for anything she did. Sure, Commander Clickspring could have overwritten the changes she made to navigation, but most likely she would have called in regardless. Same goes for weapons and drones. I could have vetoed her of course, but everything she did was in her discretion in the first place.”

“_Hmmmm_. Interesting point.” Vereesa knits her eyebrows together, considering her sister’s words.

“And there was a long pause. I can’t really describe it. The physics of it all were established before hand. I asked Khad for a second opinion and it took him like a few seconds to calculate, and he runs on a science core.” Sylvanas took a large swig from her glass, grimacing a little from the intense taste she doesn’t experience all that often.

“So what are you saying?” the silver haired elf replies, given her sister a questioning look.

“I don’t know. I took a look at the log, and everything seemed fine.” Sylvanas informs her, her voice vaguely disappointed, frustrated.

“Maybe she was double checking? I noticed she has a tendency to double check. Well it’s an AI, so she isn’t really double checking… She is running a few more random variables than would be standard. But that’s well inside her judgment.” Vereesa shrugs.

“Maybe you are right.” Sylvanas sighs again. “I’m probably overthinking things. I’m just glad her plan worked. But, did you make any progress on that memory?”

“Not since you asked this afternoon.” the other Windrunner rolls her eyes a little. “My turn.” a wide grin starts to appear on Vereesa’s face and she nudges her sister’s side a little for emphasis. “Have you been seeing anyone recently? I mean before going on board? Or on board? Spill.”

“No.” Sylvanas draws out the O indignantly, almost making it sound like a question.

“Oh, come on Vanas.” the shorter woman gestures vividly with her free hand. “There are one thousand one hundred and eighty two women on this ship.”

“I’m also the _Captain_.” Sylvanas argues, and for all intents and purposes she got a point, but it wouldn’t be her little sister if she didn’t completely ignore that.

“Fifty five of whom are marines.” she shrugs and takes a large swig of the wine herself.

“How’s your research coming along?” Sylvanas deadpans, a small glance of her younger self shining through, the one Vereesa likes a lot more than battle hardened Captain Sylvanas.

“Well, my commanding officer is breathing down my neck over the changes I made to our AI other than that pretty good.” She gives back lightly and shoves the taller elf a little.

“Hey!” the Captain protests, but then a wide smile appears on her face too and she straightens out her posture against the backrest. “I missed you, Little Moon.”

“I missed you too.”


	5. Messsage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the techno babble. Hope it's not too much. Been watching a lot of scifi lately, and this is the biproduct. Also I swear there is a coherent story somewhere in there.

“What is so important that I can’t finish my morning run?” the tall elf captain enters her sister’s laboratory. She is wearing standard issue track pants and a simple gray ‘Proudmoore’ tee, and has a towel hanging down both sides of her head, briefly held in place by her ponytail.

“I made progress on Jaina’s missing memory I wanted to share before we reach Theramore, actually.” Vereesa can’t hid her grin at the not very awe-inspiring sight of her sister drenched in sweat after only parts of her, as per usual, unreasonably long morning run around the lower weapons deck, because the gravity is slightly higher down there. Some day she is going to understand her sister, she is telling herself. Today is not that day.

“Oh. Go on.” Sylvanas replies, stretches her neck, her eyes closed, and slumps down on the couch, prompting Vereesa to scrunch her nose at the notion of her sister’s sweat all over the furniture she has fought so hard to be allowed to add to the room. She can’t stop herself from narrowing her eyes passive aggressively, but the gesture apparently goes unnoticed by the captain, so she eventually decides to just go on.

“Did you read through all the security and integrity standards?”

“Yes?”

“You should know then, that Jaina can’t access the numeric methods needed to build encryption without deposing a copy directly in the debug interface’s log memory.”

“Yes. What about it?”

“Well, I went through all logs, even way back. The key is not in her memory.”

“But that’s not supposed to be possible.”

“It isn’t.”

“But how?”

“Jaina doesn’t know the key. Not even the live version. She never knew.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. How was she supposed to encrypt the memory if she didn’t generate the key.”

“I have a theory, but you are not going to like it.”

“Yes?”

“She wanted to forget what ever is in the memory.”

“She wanted to forget.” Sylvanas parrots incredulously. “That doesn’t explain how she managed to encrypt it without knowing the key, though. Also, why would she even want to not access a memory? She’s a tactical AI.”

“I have a theory about that too.”

“I’m listening.”

“She had another AI modify it. They can share memories, so if she lent the memory to another AI and that AI encrypted it, it would still have had the same meta information and her system would have be able to overwrite it with the encrypted version. I mean, it’s a little more complex than that, but basically.”

“Sounds like a design flaw.”

“No. It’s meant to enable AI to complement each other’s skill sets. For example, a logistic AI could add valuable context to a memory which would be packaged in the metric of the memory itself, so it can probably influence her knowledge base.”

“Like the fact that orcs are very dangerous and can’t be trusted. So all we need is to know which AI altered the memory? Great. There are only about three thousand of them.”

“I have a theory about that _too_. But you are not going to like it.” Vereesa hesitantly bites her lower lip. The silence that follows bringing a worried and vaguely incredulous expression on the captain’s face.

“You can’t be serious. Khad?”

Vereesa only nods, prompting Sylvanas to sigh in resignation.

“This is going to be a clusterfuck. I can already feel it.” she closes her eyes and stretches her neck. “Can you access Khadgar’s memory from here without anyone noticing?”

“No. But I know someone who can.” the silver haired elf replies, suddenly noticeably more cheerful.

Sylvanas narrows her eyes at her sister, but then quickly decides she really doesn’t want to know, so she just nods her agreement.

“Keep me posted. And please don’t get yourself dishonorably discharged by accident. I’d really hate to owe Mom a favor.” she adds in a resigning tone.

“Yes, Captain. Wouldn’t want that to happen.” Vereesa smiles knowingly.

Sylvanas turns to leave, but then pauses halfway to the door. “Do you want to spend some time while we are on Theramore? Repairs are going to last at least a month.” she offers almost friendly, turns towards her sister and smiles.

“I… yes, of course. I’d love to!” Vereesa returns her smile. Maybe she _is_ getting through to her.

“Good. I’ll have to get back to the bridge. Keep me posted.” the captain repeats.”

“Aye aye, Ma’am.” Vereesa replies, performs a little cocky mock salute, prompting her sister to roll her eyes at her one last time.

“Didn’t know I would be running into you out here.” Sylvanas greets the AI, as she approaches the projection standing in the middle of the open space in the weapons deck, apparently observing her rearmament.

“I like to keep a close eye on things.” the AI’s friendly voice informs her without taking her eyes off the loading operations.

“I see.” Sylvanas replies, although she is pretty sure her projection doesn’t actually need to be there to do that, nor does she need to actually face it to see.

“How are operations coming along, then?” if she is honest she is just making small talk, she has read the report this morning.

“Very well, actually. The weapons crews are ahead of schedule.” Jaina replies casually. “Not that it means anything with the ongoing repairs on the structure scheduled to take at least twenty three days.” she adds more seriously.

“Do you like the upgrades?” the captain follows up, aligning herself with the AI’s projection, following her supposed gaze.

“They are _adequate_. I’m equipped with state of the art weaponry and protective measures to begin with. The prototype point defenses will be a great addition in fighting the enemy.” she informs her. “I have also been working on a new targeting heuristic, for them based on our experiences during the last battle.”

“You find your current targeting systems to be lacking?” Sylvanas raises an eyebrow.

“No. Not particular, but my analysis yielded a hidden pattern in the enemies firing routines that I think can be exploited.”

“But that’s not why you came here.” the AI added after a moment of considerably awkward silence. “How may I help you, Captain?”

“We didn’t have time for a real debriefing after the battle. I just wanted to know how you are doing, I suppose.” Sylvanas informs her, slightly irritated by the insinuation she came her seeking her out on purpose.

“You could have just summoned me.” Jaina argues casually, but there is a slightly more sharp tone in her voice, that makes the elf uneasy for the shortest moment.

“And you could supervise the weapon upgrades without materializing your avatar.” she shoots back.

“I guess we are both rather fond of this form.” the AI replies lightly, pointedly looking down at herself, then at the captain.

She is not wrong. Something in Sylvanas’ mind likes the idea of their being only one Jaina, that has a singular, discrete location to go to. And she feels uneasy about viewing the AI as just an incorporeal computer system. It’s been that way with Khad and Alina too. Rationally she knows they are not people in the general sense. On the other hand they are as individual as any other member of the crew. And with large parts of the personality matrices being black boxes, no matter how hard the scientists try to put it another way, who knows? Ironically that’s exactly why she always had a hard time fully trusting them. No matter how fancy Vereesa visualizes their reasoning.

“Now that you are here already...” The AI begins noticeably lowering her voice, turning towards her captain once more.

“Yes?”

“I have almost finished my analysis of the enemy vessel. Well, my analysis didn’t take all that long, it’s more that the science crew had to take the debris apart first...” she almost rambles but then catches herself. “The material the hull is made of is truly fascinating.”

“I am listening.”

“The whole ship seemed to be made from the same crystalline structure. The single cells seem to almost resemble living cells from most lifeforms we know. And there is a small super dense core containing a sizable amount of energy in the center of each of those cells.”

“You don’t mean to tell me the ship was a metal organism.”

“No. Not really. Although the tissue shares some properties with biological one too. I have found a piece of debris that has been hit by one of our projectiles. The material seems to heal, trying to close the gap. Obviously it lacks the means now… but...”

“Healing?” Sylvanas raises an eyebrow, giving the AI an incredulous look.

“It’s been thinning it’s overall thickness and transferring parts of the matter to the ‘wound’. We tried to feed or stimulate the process, but it appears it’s not meant to multiply. At least not at this level. But from what we saw in the healing process, the cells would probably be capable of incorporating more of its base material.”

“Any signs it’s a sentient creature?”

“Not in the debris itself, but it stands to reason that the cells could be part of a large neuronal network. They are in itself fairly complex and must be communicating with each other to facilitate the self repair. We are still working on a method of closely observing them without destroying them. Thus far all our attempts of any sort of invasion of the core caused the individual cell to die.”

“Die.” Sylvanas repeats, pausing for a moment to think over the information.

“Cease functioning.” Jaina rephrases, shrugs.

“What is it made of?”

“Spectral and atomic analysis isn’t entirely conclusive. There are elements present we never observed in a stable form before. However most of it seems to be a complex crystalline blend of Titanium, Palladium and what appears to be element three hundred forty four, by our system. The inner core contained mostly Hydrogen and Helium after we opened it.”

“Cold fusion?” the elf followed up.

“We don’t know yet… But again, with the way the system is behaving… It’s very likely.”

“Anything else?”

“Not yet. I will prepare a full briefing for you once we are done. This kind of information is to be considered highly classified by default. So I haven’t uploaded our data yet.”

“Very well. Keep it that way until I have spoken with admiralty, but contain the samples as well as possible, and if there is any doubt it’s harmless throw it into your core.”

“As you wish, Captain.” Jaina replies seriously.

“Are you connected to the station’s avatar interface?” Sylvanas inquires after already turning halfway to take her leave.

“Yes, Captain.” Jaina in turn raises an eyebrow.

“The briefing regarding the attack scheduled later tomorrow. I would like to take your physical form.” Sylvanas informs her neutrally.

The AI narrows her eyes at the unexpected request. “Do you need me to appear compliant to Navy uniform regulations?”

“That won’t be necessary.” Sylvanas replies evenly. Because she is pretty sure the AI appearing in some sort of old fashioned uniform will at least vex her mother in some way or another. But she won’t say anything, because she can’t show that she cares about such petty nonsense in front of the higher ups. The few that are actually higher up than herself. And that will in turn vex Ali, who won’t be in any position to say something about it. A win win situation.

“But the code specifically states...” the AI begins to protest petulantly.

“Why did you ask, if you are going to dispute my answer?” Sylvanas can’t keep a little smile form creeping onto her face.

“Well, I asked for reasons of politeness and keeping with protocol. I couldn’t expect you to actually give an answer contradicting it.” the AI defends audibly incredulous.

“Well you have my answer.” the captain shrugs.

“Very well, Captain.” Jaina concedes, can’t hide the defiant undertone in her voice.

“There is a problem.” Vereesa’s voice sounds from the speaker above the older Windrunner’s bed, as she turns a page in her old fashioned book. A Darnassian classic about warfare and philosophy she has read a hundred times already. A second later the silver haired elf’s face appears on a project straight in front of her sister’s face without further notice.

“What is it?” Sylvanas sits up, stretching her neck with her eyes closed, before finally facing her sister.

“I sent you a file just now.” Vereesa says, her voice is more serious than Sylvanas has heard her in a long time.

“That’s impossible.” the captain states flatly, reading over the lines a third time, a distraught expression spreading on her face, quickly.

“I thought so too.” Vereesa replies more calmly. “But I made an… unofficial inquiry with the Alliance personnel database. It’s true. I spoke to her great-grandnephew.”

“That’s impossible.” Sylvanas repeats, the words holding no more truth than before in light of the facts.

_Lieutenant Lucille Waycrest, born 2506, Kul’Tiras. K.I.A 2534, The battle of Warsong Station._ The head of the file reads.

“That’s almost a hundred years ago.”

“Keep reading.” Vereesa urges.

“Chief AI technician of the Alliance Cruiser _Proudmoore_. One of the ships tasked with escorting the negotiator, that got destroyed anchoring at Warsong when the talks failed.” The elf stares at the text for what feels like an eternity.

“Okay.” Sylvanas said calmly. “What do we actually know about Jaina? I don’t want to jump to conclusions when this might as well be an elaborate joke by some AI tech.”

“Well, according to her logs everything seems as she recounts the story. Well most of it.” Vereesa replies. “I did a lot of digging, but everything we got, even with Mom’s… _authorization_, backs up this version. She was activated shortly before the Proudmoore got commissioned, and has been ever since. And there are countless logs going back to building her matrix. None older than three years.”

“Fuck.” Sylvanas says, lets herself fall against the backrest. “Okay, lets just pretend what you are insinuating is true. That would put her into the beginning of second generation. Let’s say I would want to discern a personality matrix form back then from a brand new one, how would I go about that?”

“I mean, hypothetical a second generation AI could grow into the capabilities of a seventh generation one. Easily actually, given the right… guidance and hardware. If everything about her has been updated… the only thing remaining, save for her personality would be… There is a piece of code in AI core’s prior to foruth generation, designed to deactivate her. You have to order her to _sleep in her own bed until the morning comes_. I know it’s cheesy, they wanted to make it as obscure as possible. Whatever they did, whoever ‘they’ might be, they couldn’t have removed that from her.”

“Jaina.” Sylvanas says without a warning, only vaguely sees Vereesa’s eyes go wide with surprise from the corner of her own, as the soft glow of the AI appears in the middle of the captain’s quarters.

“Yes Captain.” the usually friendly smile greets the elf. “Are you not feeling well? Your vitals seem elevated.” a slightly worried look appears on the AI’s face.

“No. I’m feeling quite well actually.” Sylvanas replies, full and well relying on the provision that AI’s per hard coded directive can’t detect lies even if their knowledge about physiology would enable them to.

“The analysis of the debris isn’t finished yet.” Jaina goes on. “Or is there something else?”

“I want you to sleep in your own bed until the morning comes.” the captain orders strongly, but her words only prompt the AI to give a questioning look.

“I don’t seem to understand your order, Captain.” she replies, visibly confused. “Are you sure everything is alright?”

“Yes.” Sylvanas says after practically staring at the AI for the better part of a minute, barely able to suppress the sigh of relief slipping her lips. “I just… I changed my mind. Sorry for bothering you.”

“You are the captain.” Jaina shrugs. “Let me know if you happen to change your mind again.” there it is again. That little notch of sarcasm, it almost makes Sylvanas feel at ease about her peculiar AI.

“I will.” she offers with a smile. “Dismissed.” Jaina’s image dissipates from the room.

“I’m actually very relieved.” Vereesa herself looks like she had been holding her breath the entire time. “And I’m going to have a drink now.” she adds.

“What now?” Sylvanas inquires more relaxed.

“We keep quiet about this for now, and discreetly ask Khad about the memory, once the formalities are over. There has to be a rational explaination. I’m having a debriefing about Jaina’s unorthodox strategy tomorrow. Some ass with a few stripes more than me probably though it might have endangered the crew or something.” the younger Windrunner pointedly rolls her eyes. “I’m going to have lunch with Ali and Mom afterwards, I don’t suppose you want to come?”

“Depends on how the two of them behave during our briefing.” Sylvanas quips. “Put me down for a maybe with a strong leaning towards a heartfelt no.” she adds.

“You are impossible.” Vereesa scolds good-naturedly. “At some point you are going to have to talk to either of them.”

“And I will, if the opportunity presents itself. Just not tomorrow.” the older Windrunner’s words elicit a loud groan from her sister.


End file.
